'The House of the Tragic Poet'

On a clear summer's day, at lunchtime in Pompeii,
tiles must have rattled from the roof.
Carefully constructed walls
crushed intricate mosaic floors,
sinking them down under ash.
Then hot rain, deadly gas, and a hail
of pumice stones the size of a plague.

Vesuvius battered and smothered,
shattered a world, engulfing this House of Art.
Pictured through the door: CAVE CANEM,
the grim black canine greets the visitor,
as he would have done in August A.D.79.
and again, in 1824, when they unearthed
'The House of the Tragic Poet',
to hang a 'For Sale' sign on the door.

They disturbed the graves of the suffocated,
consumed most of its treasures. What is left?
Just the shame, that for one hundred years
they let the rest 'dissolve' out in the rain.
So, I cannot describe the Theatre Mosaic
at the centre of the Tablinum floor,
a small 54 by 54 centimetered picture
of actors rehearsing Satyrs backstage.

Except there are some, swapping stories
in the wings of the Naples Museum,
set and prop designers reconstructing;
elsewhere, scientists and artists
of all the crafts, recreate some
of what is imagined to have been,
before it was torn apart.

(Nicholas Wood - his book - 'La Casa Del Poeta Tragico' )